Craftmad Meet Up - Ruth's Projects

Hi today I am sharing the craft creations we made with Ruth's kits.  These were so fun.  The card above I gave to a friend for her birthday on the weekend.  Yes, she loved it as too did another friend who had to take a photo.  I have made one of these twisted ribbon roses before but with a circle piece of card stock covered in double sided tape.  I found the ribbon didn't stick too well.  However, Ruth gave us these large sticky dots and the ribbon stuck very well to them.  I have just messaged her to find out where she got them from.  Hope to return and let you know.

Second project was this very handy calendar.  Aren't the papers just lovely.  This closes with a magnet which was so thin that you can't even feel the bump under the patterned paper but so strong.  Another question for Ruth was where she bought these magnets from.

The inside of the little calendar.

Remember you can see the other ladies take on these projects here in the Craftmad Get Together album.

Craftmad Meet Up - Mandy's Projects

Not quite sure what happened after Wednesday last week.  Although there was finishing off the painting of the two roller doors on the shed, grocery shopping, visiting Mum and Dad, catching up with  three friends at movies and coffee (About Time...is a really nice movie), daughter got a casual job - Yay!  Then I filled the gaps with normal routine stuff. :-)

So Monday again and today I am going to share the items I made with Mandy's kits at our Craftmad Meet Up.  Mandy is the originator of Craftmad Forum and she also owns Blue Edge Crafts and Sticker Store. I didn't realise how busy Mandy had kept us until putting up all these photos.  The first project is a box we made from scratch.  We had to glue up all the sides and reinforce them with paper.  It has turned out to be very solid and sitting pride of place on my craft cupboard.

The sides I had another play with Tracey's Tim Holtz Distress Inks and, I think, did a pretty good job matching the top paper.

Mandy had kindly cut out our names to put on our own boxes and all these lovely embellishments.

This card was so quick to make but I think so effective.

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread card so I thought this was a lot of fun.  If fact have ordered a couple.  :-)

We used Diecut Gingerbread Man, Happy Holidays Card front, and another thing I love for Chrtistmas - the Holly Frame Diecut.  We gave him black glitter paper buttons and eyes.

Another quick card that I really love the end result.  The feather is so pretty...luckily for us Mandy found these hidden in her stash.  We started with an Embossed Circle Card, then added the black scalloped edge circle and topped with the red bird and feather. Oh and added a grey shimmer paper to the inside of the card.

This one we started with a brown card blank and added a piece torn handmade paper.  Then attached a piece of Cream Organza ribbon and topped this with an image from a Decoupage sheet.

This card is going to my nephew later this month when he turns three.  We all had fun dressing this little guy up and drawing in his facial features.

The colours on this card are so pretty.  I really liked the texture of the burlap ribbon. 

And lastly, but by no means least.  This card looks even better in real life.  The 3D Paper Tole images we all used were all pre-cut, are glossy with a hint of glitter.  They are from the Easy 3D Hearty Craft Pack range.  I also liked the silver zig zag sticker that we attached to the edges.  Looks like stitching to me. 

And that brings me to the end of my post today.  Thanks for popping by.

Craftmad Meet Up - Tracey's Projects

Today I have the creations I made with Tracey's kits at the Craftmad Meet Up.  This is not normally my style but I had a ball playing with all the inks and UTEE.  Tracey is a avid Tim Holtz fan and has been lucky enough to attend one of his classes and owns lots of his inks.  Best bit is she shared the Distress Inks with us.  I have only seen people using the Distress Inks on different blogs so it was nice to have a play and they are definitely fun.  We started with a Kraft tag above which we used some metallic ink on.  Then attached a smaller manilla tag which was covered in printed tissue paper, a border die was used on the right hand side and we used a couple colours of distress inks.  Then we embellished with flowers, bling, a piece of paper which we distressed the edges and curled a corner and a butterfly to which more ink was added.  I love the end result.

Another down and dirty project.  We started with the smallest canvas I have seen, wrapped it in tissue paper.  Added sprays of ink, this time I tried Mandy's Colorbox Dye Ink - Deep Grape.  We then sprayed with water to make the ink run.  Another first, we got to play with UTEE to which a little colour has been added - green.  A daub of UTEE was added to the canvas and then we pressed into this with a  pretty peacock silicone stencil.  Before it cooled totally we rubbed it with a pearl powder.  Then when cooled hot glued all the embellishments.  The leaf had been dipped in the UTEE too and then when cooled we cracked it and rubbed distress inks into the cracks.  Another fantastic project.

If you visit Kerry's Place to Escape you can see photos of us playing with the UTEE.

You can see everyone else's take on these projects in our gallery album here at Craftmad.  A wonderful variety of colours.

Craftmad Meet Up - Kerry's Projects

Today I want to share the creations I made with Kerry's kits at the Craftmad Meet Up.  You can find Kerry here at Kerry's Place to Escape.  Now if you need someone to complete instructions for a kit or a tutorial this is the lady to ask.  Kerry went to so much effort with her instructions - photos and hand drawn sketches with measurements added.  Fantastic.    The stitched front on this card was already in the kit for each of us completed by Kerry.  This card would be perfect for the current Unstampabelles challenge - Stitching. ;-)

A lot of fun to put together.

Now this card I loved the colours and the wonderful way we attached the acetate.

Tadah!.....isn't that so clever.

To see the other ladies takes on these creations please visit the gallery at Craftmad here.

Got to go and paint a couple of roller doors on the shed.  Have a good day everyone.

Craftmad Meet Up 2013 - Jan's projects

Today I want to share the creations I made using Jan's kits at our Craftmad meet up first weekend of October.  First off is this twisted easel card.  I love all the gold which is just card stock from the local newsagents.  We started with pearl card stock and rubbed on some distress inks.  Heavier on the edges and lighter towards the centre.  Then added all these wonderful dies.

For this card we sandwiched a lattice die cut in between the card front and the white cardstock which had a circle cut out.  We then attached the blue circle and purposely put it off centre.  I like this effect and should have made it a little more off centre like Jan had done.  Jan loves flowers so we added a whole bunch.  Not my normal style as I am always thinking of what can go in the mail.  When my Mum saw this card she liked the fact that only three corners were embellished with the die cuts.

This was a very smelly....but nice smelly activity.  So love the end result.  Quick but so pretty.  We started with a bar of soap in our case 'Dove' wrapped it in lace, secured with pins.  Then adorned it with all these lovely flowers, leaves, ribbon, pearls and butterfly the hot glue gun was used to attached al of these.

You can see everyone else's version of these kits in our Craftmad Meet Up photo album.

Halfway Inspiration - Unstampabelles Challenge #28 - Stitching.

Hi a really quick post as I must dash.  

This is my halfway inspiration card for our Stitching challenge at Unstampabelles.

The card front is from our sponsor Blue Edge Crafts.  These card fronts have all the pin holes ready for your stitching and there is such a huge selection to choose from.

Please pop over to Unstampabelles and see what the other Designers came up with and while there add your entry.  Have a great day.

My Projects for the Craftmad Get Together

Hi everyone, thought I would share the projects I took down to the Craftmad Get Together. When making mine I had to keep in mind that I was travelling to Brisbane a week before the get together to catch up with family and doing a fair bit of train and bus catching so wanted to travel light.

I have been visiting Qbee's Quest blog for a long time as Brenda does the most wonderful tutorials.  I love all her creations with Hershey Kisses and thought this was a great time to try one out.  At home I cut all the strips for the ladies and after a google search saw that Hershey Kisses could be bought in Brisbane.  So during the week before the meet up I searched high and low and no success.  Thought I found an alternative but when I got them back to the motel I discovered that Hershey Kisses are smaller than I imagined.  So we had extra chocolates to eat at the get together.  Kerry came to the rescue asking her husband to go in search for 'Kisses' at a Toms Confectionery Warehouse.  Success.  Funny thing is my daughter who was travelling with me had been taken to the warehouse the day before by our son's girlfriend and our daughter was in heaven.

As I have done a few cards with Copic colouring the ladies had mentioned they would like to have a try.  So I went in search of a good starting image for Copics that would only use a couple of colours and require some blending.  I found this lovely 'Daisy' freebie at 'The Digi Chick'.  I also saw the wonderful card created using this image and used the layout for the project.  I used my stash of papers and cardstock for the kits and didn't have enough of one particular set of papers to make ten kits.  So grabbed my DCWC paper pack and teamed the papers with card stock.  This meant there were different colours and patterns for the ladies to choose from.  I really enjoyed seeing the flowers come to life in the different colours that everyone chose.  You can see the variety here in our album at Craftmad.  Kerry, has hers in a post here.

Annual Craftmad Meet Up 5-7 October 2013

Well here we are - the ladies from Craftmad at the second annual meet up.  It was a first for me and I thoroughly loved it.  So nice after 8 years of belonging to this wonderful forum to meet the ladies in the flesh. We all met up in Brisbane at Kaye's place for the long weekend 5-7 October and crafted for three days.  Brilliant.

Don't you just love our outfits.  Kaye and Ruth had been very busy making all our names tags, place markers, head bands, wristbands and providing cool glasses and black beads ready for our arrival.  The aprons were given to us by Mandy the owner of Craftmad.  In case you are curious that is me centre front row.

This amazing collection is all that I created over the long weekend.  I still have about four kits that I did not get to that need putting together.  We all had to bring at least one project kit for everyone to do.  Majority of us brought two and some a couple more.  So we were kept busy.  It was fun trying out everyones style of cardmaking and also to try out different crafting items that I have only ever seen on the web and not in the flesh.  So over the next couple of weeks I will slowly post a closer view of these creations and some more details.

If you would like to see more photos of our get together you can visit the Craftmad gallery.  Maybe even join in the forum.  You could also visit Kaye or Kerry's blogs to see their posts about our get together.

Craftmad Card Swap - Things with Wings

Hi everyone, hope you had a great weekend.  We did, not that we went anywhere just achieved a couple of things.  Finally hung some artwork and photos on our newly painted walls.  Since we had painted the walls white we took this time to change what we have had hanging on our walls for the past 15 years.  There is so much available, it was a challenge narrowing down to just a few ideas.  We have gone with a couple of canvas of prints and a photo that my husband took put onto canvas.  Now just waiting for some of our photos that are framed with acrylic.  The first ever lounge that we owned has always been our favourite was recovered the week before last when I was in Brisbane.  So last week I bought some fabric and cushion inserts as I just can't come at paying $20 - $30 for a cushion.  I made four cushions $11ea....so happy.  Yes, I keep walking around our house at the moment with a smile as it is just like moving into a new place but with the same wonderful location.  We are also getting the outside of our house painted which has been a yellow/cream with green verandah poles and maroon guttering.  Changing this to Charcoal poles and guttering and a light taupe colour for the house.  Jeff the painter started today....looking good already. :-)

So the card above I made for my August Swap partner over at Craftmad.  The theme of the swap was 'Thing with Wings'.  I have used Stampin Up cardstock and design papers.  The butterfly also came from a Stampin Up set.  The leaf die is from Spellbinder and only the second time I have used it.  You can't see in the photo but there is a touch of pink bling on each scallop down the side.

Thanks for passing on by.

Craftmad Quilt Block Swap

Hi everyone, I will be posting all about CRAFTMAD for the next month I think with all the creations I have made because of this wonderful forum.  So to start off I would like to share where we are up too with our latest Quilt Block swap......we are always keen to have new members of.

At present there are three of us that swap to each other each month.  At the start of 2013 we decided to use Dusky Green, Dusky Blue and Dusky Yellow and have a different quilt block pattern each month. Each month I have been sewing the two swap blocks and one for myself.  The row on the left are my blocks, centre row are Cathy's. You can find more about Cathy's blocks on her blog and see other terrific blocks she has sewn.  The row on the right is from Mandy and you can see all of Mandy's blocks in the gallery at CRAFTMAD.

August we swapped a 12" Twin Star Quilt Block.

I really like how this one turned out.

September we swapped a 12" Frosted Star Quilt Block

We had another person join this swap so I made up four.  Sadly, I ran out of fabric for two of them and reverted to my original dusky green fabric.  Amazing how it changes the look of the pattern.  Although I like the end result of this block, I did curse a little with all those triangles.  Bring on the squares, I say. :-)

Thanks for visiting my way, once again I will find time again soon to catch up on your blogs.  Wishing you all a great weekend.

DT Card - Unstampabelles Challenge #28 - Stitching

Hi everyone, I have returned from my week trip to Brisbane.  So much fun catching up with my sister and her family, our son and his girlfriend and all the wonderful ladies from Craftmad.  Yes, it was their second annual get together and this time I got to go.  We crafted, chatted, laughed, and ate lots of food for three days.  So now I have a few creations to share with you this month.  Just have to wait a couple of days before I can start doing that as, silly me, left my box of creations in the car that gave me a lift to the airport.  So now they are in the mail.

The card above I created for our latest challenge at Unstampabelles.  We want to see stitching on your craft projects.  I started with Stampin Up cardstock Naturals White then attached a piece of dress pattern with stitching.  I used my sewing machine for all the stitching.  I then sewed some stems and leaves for the flower embellishments I found in my stash.  Finished with a couple of sticker sentiments.

Be sure to visit Unstampabelles to see what the rest of the Design Team have come up with.  There is an embroided apron, hand stitched cards,  and machine stitched cards.

Our Sponsor this month is the terrific Blue Edge Crafts with this wonderful prize.